Time magazine’s Scott MacLeod, reporting from the Middle East, recently spoke to a veteran Western diplomat who couldn’t muster any optimism about the future of the region. “The region is in as serious a mess as I have ever seen it,” he said. “There is an unprecedented number of interconnected conflicts and threats.”
It led MacLeod to compile a list of the president’s “five fatal mistakes” that contributed to the crisis in the Middle East. It’s a pretty solid list.
1. Bush ignored the Palestinians: “When Bush became president, he ended crucial American mediation, repudiated Arafat and backed Sharon, who proceeded to expand Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank. With the conflict becoming bloodier than ever, Arafat died, and Hamas, the fundamentalist party that adamantly refuses to even recognize Israel, much less negotiate with it, ousted the late Palestinian leader’s party from power.”
2. Bush invaded Iraq: “After 9/11, Bush became convinced that Saddam Hussein was seeking nuclear weapons and represented a mortal threat to the West. He also came to believe that ousting Saddam would turn Iraq into a democracy that would become the model for the rest of the Arab world. Saddam turned out not to have nuclear weapons, and Iraq turned out to be more prone to civil war than democracy. It runs the risk of becoming a failed state from which terrorists run global operations, and/or breaking into ethnic mini-states that inspire secessionist trouble throughout the region.”
3. Bush misjudged Iran: “Just after Bush became president, Iranians reelected moderate President Mohammed Khatami, who had reached out to the U.S. and called for a “dialogue of civilizations.” Bush not only refused to extend the olive branch cautiously offered by the Clinton Administration, he declared Iran part of an ‘axis of evil.’ Khatami left office under fire for the failure of his conciliatory approach, to be replaced by hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who proceeded to promote Iran’s nuclear ambitions and call for Israel to be wiped off the map.”
4. Bush hurt Israel: “If protecting Israel had been a key goal of the Administration’s policies, it is hard to see how they have helped make the Jewish State better off today.”
5. Bush alienated Muslims: “The Bush Administration’s involvement in or perceived support of military campaigns against Iraqis, Palestinians and Lebanese heightened Muslim anger at the U.S. and undermined the political position of moderate, pro-American Arabs.”
I don’t disagree with any of these points; in fact, I think they’re spot on. I’d just add a few.
For one thing, Bush neglected Afghanistan. For all the talk about “finishing the job” in Iraq, the president invaded Afghanistan, removed the Taliban from power, helped install a real government … and then walked away. Conditions in the country have deteriorated ever since and now the Taliban is gaining power.
For another, Bush blew off al Qaeda. After vowing to get bin Laden “dead or alive,” the president decided that those responsible for the 9/11 attacks weren’t the real problem; Saddam Hussein, a feckless thug, was. It certainly made it appear as if the administration was more concerned with Iraq than fighting an effective war on terrorism.
Moreover, Bush not only made a mistake in invading Iraq; botching reconstruction was almost as bad. What kind of message did it send to the Middle East when, thanks to Bush administration policy, Iraq suffered from power outages, overflowing sewage, and high unemployment? The Bush gang never gave this stage of the conflict a moment’s thought — and it shows.
And then Bush decided to embrace torture. Secret CIA prisons, Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo … there was no better way for the president to cede the high ground faster than by embracing his abusive detainee policies.
We could probably do this all day, but MacLeod’s list, coupled by my suggested additions, seems like a pretty good start to describe the worst regional policy in American history.
Did we miss anything?